Political Science 378
The Politics of American National Security Policy
Midterm Exam
INSTRUCTIONS
There are 2 parts to this exam: short answer questions and essays. You must do 3 short answer questions from the reading, 3 from the lecture, and one essay. If you have any questions, contact me. Good luck.
A couple of hints: do the essay first, and do an outline before you begin the essay.
PART I. ESSAYS (30 points)
Write an essay on one of the following two questions. It is worth 30 points.
A. Russia currently has 150 ICBMs in fixed silos. Ninety of these are SS-18s and Ss-19s. Here are the basic characteristics of these missiles:
Missile / # of SNDVs / # warheads / MT/warhead / CEPSS-18 / 55 / 10 / .75 / .23
SS-19 / 35 / 6 / .40 / .19
These missiles are old and need to be replaced in the near future. You are advising the Russian government about replacing these systems. There are 2 choices.
Choice / # of SNDVs / # warheads / MT/warhead / CEPSS-27 (in silos) / 90 / 1 / .80 / .19
SS-N-18m1 (SLBM) / 90 / 3 / .05 / .45
After evaluating the pros and cons of each replacement missile, recommend one of them to the Russian government. You must justify your choice.
B. Something strange has happened to the Trident SLBM force. As you know from the assignment, the current Trident force looks like this:
US FORCES / WarheadSystem / Warheads / # SNDV / Pairs / EMT/SNDV / Total EMT / Pk2.2
SLBM
Trident D-5 / 4 / 336 / 672 / 2.37 / 794 / 0.95
But through a series of mistakes, the D-5 warheads have all been replaced with C-4 warheads (these were the warheads that were on Trident missiles when they were first deployed). So now the Trident SLBM force looks like this:
US FORCES / WarheadSystem / Warheads / # SNDV / Pairs / EMT/SNDV / Total EMT / Pk2.2
SLBM
Trident C-4 / 4 / 336 / 672 / 0.86 / 289 / 0.079
How should you use the Trident SLBM warheads? What should you target? Consider each type of target discussed in lecture (you can ignore targeting Europe). Discuss the pros and cons of each type of target. Then discuss how well you believe the C-4 warheads would do against each type of target. Finally, pick the type of target you would recommend for the C-4 warheads.
PART II.SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS.
Do 3 short answer questions from each of the two sets of short answer questions.
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM THE READINGS (5 points/answer).
1. According to ch. 2 in Sapolsky et al. (US Defense Politics: The Origins of Security Policy) what are the alternatives for US grand strategy (name them)?
2. In ch. 6 of O’Hanlon (Healing the Wounded Giant) he proposes several principles for future military compensation. What are these principles?
3. According to McMaster (ch. 3 of Lessons for a Long War) what types of training do soldiers need if they are to fight an insurgency?
4. As given in Masters & Bruno (US Ballistic Missile Defense) what are the existing US BMD programs?
5. According to ch. 4 in Sapolsky et al. (US Defense Politics: The Origins of Security Policy) what are the differences between the political parties on defense policy in the post-Cold War era?
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS FROM THE LECTURES (5 points/answer).
6. Why was the Navy’s World War II experience in the Pacific more important than its experience in the Atlantic in terms of shaping the post-war navy?
7. What conditions must be met to keep a war limited?
8. Name and define the strategic nuclear weapons policies.
9. As seen by critics, what were the particular problems of the Army’s office corps in Vietnam?
10. What are the primary objections to having women serve in combat?